A Geek Sort of Thing
by ladyofnite
Summary: When Tim doesn't show up to work, the team is concerned. When they find out he took off after receiving a mysterious email, they're worried. When they find him, they wish they'd just left him be. Written for the 'All is Discovered' Challenge on NFA.
1. Chapter 1

A Geek Sort of Thing

Written for the 'All is Discovered'Chapter One- The Geek Takes Flight

**Story Notes**

Weirdness, weirdness, weirdness. I can't even guess where this came from. Does this count as a crack!fic? You tell me.

With a boss like Leroy Jethro Gibbs, it wasn't often the MCRT had a nice, quiet, peaceful sort of day. But, usually they got a little respite in the mornings, while he wandered around the building, drinking up his lifeblood and discovering all the gossip he had missed while he was gone.

Of course, such peace only lasted if everyone followed the rules.

"Where. Is. McGee?" Gibbs demanded, every word causing his two present team members- Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David- to flinch.

"I don't-" As much as Tony hated to admit not knowing anything, he had been trying to reach the younger man since he'd arrived promptly 3 minutes late as usual and realized his Probie was not at it's desk. His Probie was much like the computers he ruled over- always running on a strict program. That Tim was late meant nothing good and the fact that both he and Ziva had failed to contact their team member in the ten minutes it had taken Gibbs to work his way back to the bullpen after first realizing that McGee was late (as well as giving Tony his daily why-are-you-still-three-minutes-late head smack) meant they were in trouble too.

"He's not answering his cell or his home phone." Ziva took up the slack when Tony shriveled under Gibbs' glare. "He hasn't answered any emails or IMs. Instant messages," she quickly elaborated. She didn't know if Gibbs actually knew what instant messages were or not, but knew better than to launch into an unprompted explanation- especially one regarding technology.

"He didn't say anything to either of you?" Gibbs demanded, taking a seat at his computer. In spite of his many warnings over the years, McGee still persisted in sending emails on occasion when he was out sick- some nonsense about it being regulation. Because, obviously, Gibbs was a big regulations guy.

"No, Boss." Tony protested, shaking his head rapidly. "We all went out Friday. He left a little early, but said wanted to do some writing. Typing. You know."

"Mm." Gibbs said in answer, rapidly pushing the button that would turn his hated machine on.

He carefully navigated his way to his email, growling under his breath the whole time and shooting glares at his team just for good measure. How dare McGee break Rule 3?

But, no, even this form of communication fell through. He looked in his In-box, ignoring the 92 unread emails from the last few weeks and searching for his agent's name.

The last email McGee had sent him was from two weeks ago, the results of a computer analysis on one of their suspects' computers.

"Alright." He shut off the computer, ignoring the small voice in his head that sounded like a screaming McGee. He knew he was supposed to follow some format or another in properly shutting the damn thing down, but didn't really care. "Go to his apart- Abby." He broke off his orders as his forensic scientist slowly made her way into the bullpen.

She was dressed in her usual style, a short plaid skirt and a skeleton t-shirt, both of which were 'decorated' with chains and partially obscured thanks to her lab coat, as well as the clunky boots that made her almost as tall as him.

"Hey, Gibbs." She smiled at him, nervously wringing her hands. With her hair up in their usual ponytails and her guilty expression, she looked like a little girl.

She was definitely hiding something from him.

He instantly stood, his expression fierce. "Hey, Abs. What are you doing up here?"

"I can't come and visit?" She asked, pouting up at him.  
>He wasn't about to be taken in by that expression however. She never did anything without a reason. "Abby." He said warningly.<p>

As usual, she failed to comprehend or at least acknowledge the threat behind his words, turning instead to look sadly at McGee's empty desk.

Ah, that was far more promising a lead. "Abby," he gently grabbed her by her shoulders and turned her back to face him. "Do you know anything I should about McGee?"

Her bright green eyes momentarily reflected panic, but even as he realized what he'd asked, she smirked. "Oh, I know a lot about McGee, Gibbs. You might be interested in some of it." She teased, winking as her usual humor kicked in.

He resisted the urge to headsmack, fiercely reminding himself that this was Abby. "Abby." He growled. "Do you know where McGee is right now?"

"Um…" She bit on her bottom lip- painted rather disconcertingly in black- for a moment before brightening. "No! I don't." She declared proudly. "Timmy's location is completely unknown to me at this current moment," she specified.

Oh, God. Gibbs rolled his eyes. It was going to be a long day. He hated when Abby got literal on him. It took so much longer to get anything done.

Luckily, before he could get too angry, his team finally decided he needed some backup and joined the conversation, coming to stand on either side of Abby.

"So, you're saying you do know something?" Tony demanded before she could answer, crossing his arms menacingly.

"Um…" Abby bit her lip.

"And you did come up here to tell us, right?" Ziva asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Well-"

"After all," Tony threw in the kicker, "you wouldn't lie to us, would you, Abby? Because you know we're highly trained investigators. We know when you're lying."

Abby whimpered softly, looking to Gibbs as if for help.

He took a step back, content to let his team do what they did best. He did keep them around for something, after all- they occasionally came in handy.

"I can't tell you!" She exclaimed after a minute, hugging herself. "I promised Timmy!"

"Abby, McGee would want us to know." Ziva assured the other woman.

"You wouldn't want him to be in danger, would you?" Tony threw in helpfully.

"He told me not to tell you guys." Abby reached into her lap coat's pocket, pulling out a piece of notebook paper. "He was very specific." She added, opening the paper. "I'm not allowed to tell Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, Ducky, Palmer, any of my machines or any of Ducky's corpses what's going on. I'm not allowed to use verbal language, written or typed language, sign language, mime or psychic powers like telepathy to let you guys know what's going on."

She handed the paper to Tony, who had to raise it above his head to keep Ziva from stealing it. When she elbowed him in retaliation, he brought it down so that they both could read it, while Gibbs rolled his eyes.

"So, why are you here then, Abs?" Gibbs asked, not bothering to read the note. He knew from long experience that Abby's handwriting was ridiculously small and he wasn't entirely sure where his reading glasses were. Besides, he knew the young computer geek that worked for him. If McGee wanted to make sure Abby didn't tell anything, he'd take care of every angle. He'd had years learning how to work around Abby's moods- he was almost as good at it as Gibbs himself was. "If you're not going to help us," he added critically.

"Gibbs!" She frowned, jutting her lower lip out. "I can't! It's Timmy! I can't defy his wishes- he always knows when I do! And then he gets so mad at me! He stops talking to me and I hate it," she whined.

"She's here for his computer." Tony pointed towards the top of the notebook paper. "He wants Abby to do what she "always promised she'd do in an emergency". Why do you have 'computer' written next to that?" He asked curiously.

"Well," Abby began twisting her hands anxiously again. "A lot of hackers have a…contingency plan. In case they get caught or have to leave in a hurry. They have a partner- someone they can really trust. If anything should happen, their partner is supposed to… wipe their computer." Her words faded as she spoke, so that her last phrase came out as barely a whisper.

Still, they were highly trained investigators, with keen minds. They all caught the meaning of her words quickly.

"McGee has been caught doing something?" Ziva asked, shocked. "He is on the run?"

"I dunno." Abby shrugged. "All he said was that the past was coming back. He was going to miss some work and that I was supposed to do what I promised. And, he promised he would be okay." She bit her lip again. "D'you think he meant it, Gibbs? Timmy wouldn't lie to me…right?"

"Nah, of course not!" When Gibbs didn't speak up, Tony did, slinging his arm around Abby's waist and pulling her in for a quick hug. "You know Probie- can't lie worth a damn. But, what does his computer have to do with his past?"

"Nothing." Gibbs was still working out the implications. "But, with him going missing, they may investigate. He has done more than a few things that weren't exactly aboveboard."

"No, Tim's not worried about that." Abby shook her head, ignoring Tony's flinch as her pigtail hit him. "He specifically told me not to worry about his work computer. I came up here to get his laptop and his flash drives."

"Probie takes his laptop with him."

"I know." She said, going over to Tim's desk and pulling out his collection of flash drives. "But, I got that call from him around midnight and I've been trying to figure a way around it all night. The best I could come up with was subterfuge. I thought maybe if I came up here and was suspicious, maybe one of you would follow me!"

Tony laughed. "That's all well and good, Abs, but doesn't help us out. We wouldn't know what you were doing with a computer anyways. It's not like we could stop you."

"Oh." Abby's hopeful face fell. "I hadn't thought about that."

"Do you know where he is?" Ziva asked curiously. "I do not see how his computers could help us anyways- we would need him back to uncode them."

"Oh." Abby frowned. "Okay, I really didn't think that out. I don't actually know where he went. The only other thing he told me was not to tell Sarah anything and that when his parents called I was to tell them he was out of town."

"He thinks charges are going to be placed on him." Gibbs said, trying to find McGee's mindframe- always a hard task for him as they were so different in some things. Not in many though, not where it counted. "He wants his family protected- his actual family as well as the team. Who knows what McGee gets up to on his computers. Is it worth saving, Abby? You could save the hard drive, right? That wasn't a rule?"

She snatched the paper back from Tony, furiously reading through it. "I'm not allowed." She shook her head sadly. "No copies are to be made of any part of his computer, including the flashdrives, which I'm supposed to destroy. I know he has other copies though- I'm not worried about him losing anything important."

"Hm, no help there." Gibbs rubbed at his chin, trying to decide what to do. "I really don't want you to wipe that computer, Abs." He said honestly. "Something spooked him. What if it's on one of his computers?"

"What about his email?" Tony snapped his fingers. "Probie answers emails more than phone calls- except when you call, of course, Boss." He quickly added when Gibbs glared at him. "He answers dozens of them every day. He actually has quite a contact list, considering his background. Some of them come in handy- I know he uses them on some cases."

"I know his password." Abby offered helpfully. "And, email is on the Internet, so technically I'm not copying anything!" She added, smiling in delight. "Let's see."

She quickly headed over to Tim's desk, the others crowding around her as she took his seat. It only minutes, she was in his email account. "Uh-oh. He's already been through his email." She said, frowning. McGee was a man who kept a lot of his emails, for reference. His inbox was empty, for the first time since she'd met him.

"Can you get any of them back?" Tony leaned over her shoulder, pointing to the trash bin on the email account. "He was in a hurry, he didn't delete the trash. Probably figured they'd be automatically deleted when he logged off. Sometimes they don't though."

"Ha!" Abby grinned triumphantly, as she saw what Tony did- the trash did still have old emails in it. "I can. We really need to get that program fixed," she mused, even as she took advantage of the error.

"Okay, here are the last three messages he received." Abby quickly recovered the only messages from the previous day. "One is from someone in Cyber Crimes- he still helps them out from time to time. Another is from his publisher… that mean woman is yelling at Tim again about deadlines! And this one-" She froze in her editorial comments, squinting at the screen. "Is not in English. Is that Latin? Who sends an email in Latin?"

"That's not Latin," Tony grabbed the clicker, sending the image on the computer to the plasma screen. "McGee has shown me this before. This is Klingon!" He exclaimed, laughing. "See how some of the letters are capitalized- even in the middle of words? That's not some stupid font- that's how the alphabet works. He speaks it- remember, Boss?"

"Yeah." Gibbs remembered that dreadful Halloween, however much he tried to forget it. Though he had been amused to find out just what languages McGee knew, he was still not happy about being insulted in a language he didn't know. "I remember. He said he wasn't fluent. Did he reply to this message?"

"Um…no." Abby said, quickly looking into the Sent folder. "But, look at the timestamp. He opened this letter at 2355 last night. He called me just minutes later. It couldn't have been more than ten minutes."

"Translate that." Gibbs ordered, glaring at the  
>letters. "There has to be an alphabet out there somewhere."<p>

"It doesn't work like that, Gibbs. Klingon is a real language." Abby admitted, cringing slightly. "It's not just letter substitution; they had a linguist create an actual language. I would need a dictionary."

"You're kidding me?" Gibbs rolled his eyes. "Well, get a  
>dictionary then. Now." He ordered impatiently.<p>

"Gibbs, it isn't that easy!" She protested.

"Um, actually." Now Tony had to step forward. "McGee brought one in and I…well… appropriated it." He stepped over to his desk, quickly opening one of his  
>drawers. "It's funny; I use it from time to time. Send him emails just to keep him up to date on his language skills…"<p>

He trailed off as the team suddenly glared at him. "I didn't send this one!" He protested. "It's only ever about stupid stuff- that crap takes forever to type out. And the grammar's all backwards, but he won't answer if I get it wrong, so I have to make sure I don't get it wrong. It's way too annoying to do too often."

"Although…" He handed the well-thumbed dictionary over to Abby and leaned against the desk. "This does explain the text I got from him."

"You got a text from him?" Gibbs seized the new information. "When? What did it say?"

"Uh, it was around 0100 last night." Tony cringed, realizing he'd lied to Gibbs earlier. "I'm sorry, Boss! I wasn't lying- I forgot about it. All he was if I had sent him an email and I texted back 'no'. He didn't reply, so I assumed he'd found out who really sent it."

"You didn't think that was a little odd?" Gibbs resisted the urge to smack his senior agent.

Tony looked down, really hesitant to answer. "Um, well, no." He admitted when Gibbs glared at him. "Boss, he didn't want you to know- didn't want anyone to know, but he still gets crazy fan mail from time to time. Sometimes it's in email form. I only know because the first time it happened, he thought it might be a joke I was playing on him."

Gibbs growled impatiently. "I warned him about those emails! If this is about one of his books again, I'll slap him so hard…"

"Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs," Abby broke through his words, tugging on his shirt. "It's not about his book. It says, All is discovered, flee at once. What kind of stupid message is that? Why did it scare him?"

"Is that all it says?" An actual language or not, there were still a whole lot of words on the plasma for such a short message.

"No," Abby shook her head. "That's the first sentence. There isn't any punctuation, but I think that each line is a separate sentence. Maybe. Possibly."

"Get back to work then." Gibbs said, even as he patted her on the shoulder. "I want that message as soon as I get back."

Without giving any member of his team a chance to question him, he turned, walking out of the bullpen and up the stairs to reach the top floor. As he'd known, Vance was there waiting for him.

"I wasn't aware that Ms. Sciuto had decided to become an Agent. Am I going to find McGee down in the lab?" Vance asked mildly, an eyebrow raised in query.

Gibbs resisted the urge to roll his eyes. This man was, after all, his boss. Theoretically. "Something has come up. McGee is on emergency leave," he lied without a qualm. "Personal business."

"I know." Vance smirked the slightest bit at seeing Gibbs' surprise at his words. "He sent me an email with almost that exact wording. Very odd. And so you decided to TAD Ms. Sciuto?"

"Something happened to McGee." Gibbs didn't have time for the usual cat-and-mouse game with Vance, as much as he did enjoy them. "He took off late last night, leaving Abby with a list of instructions that she won't break." He added, looking around to make sure no one was close enough to overhear them. "We're trying to work our way around them to help him."

Vance's smile faded as he straightened to his full height, proving that every once in a while he could still be a decent person. "McGee is in trouble?"

"We don't know." Gibbs confessed, quickly filling Vance in. "Someone sent him a cryptic message and then he contacted Abby and told her to destroy all his files and his laptop. He practically lives on that thing. There's nowhere he doesn't take it."

"Except this time." Vance said, turning and heading down the stairs. Gibbs followed him, a little confused, but Vance didn't stop until he was in front of Abby. "McGee's orders?" He asked, holding out a hand.

"Uh," Abby froze until she saw Gibbs nod behind the Director. "Here you go, sir." She said, handing it over and quickly turning back to the dictionary.

It didn't help. Gibbs smirked, realizing he'd caught Abby  
>out for once. "What've you got, Abs?" He asked.<p>

She saw his smirk and was not amused. "I don't see a Caf-Pow." She said, deliberately ignoring him.

"Abby!" Gibbs glared at her, unamused by her behaviour. "If you ever want to see a Caf-Pow again you had better-"

Abby grinned suddenly and with a quick burst of typing, keyed up the plasma. "All done, _el jefe_." She said, beaming at him. "The rest of the message, as ordered,  
>Sir." She lazily saluted, as usual, with her left hand.<p>

Gibbs rolled his eyes, ignoring her antics, and turned towards the plasma, but Vance, still new to the team dynamics, couldn't help himself. "Ms. Sciuto, you work for Naval Criminal Investigative Services. That implies military- how can you not know which hand you salute with?"

She winked at him, as unfazed by his glare as by Gibbs- he needed to spend a lot more time in front of a mirror working on it if he wanted to get to Gibbs' level and even at that level, if the original didn't scare her than why should his? "Sorry, sir!" She said, straightening up to attention and switching hands to snap off the correct salute that Gibbs had made her spend hours practicing her first year at NCIS.

Vance looked more shocked than they'd ever seen him. "Very well then," he said uneasily after a moment. "Back to work then, Ms. Sciuto."

"Sir, yes sir." Abby grinned gleefully before turning to Gibbs. "Gibbs, the rest of the letter makes a little more sense. It says, This was a game that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle played one time that resulted in a man fleeing his life. What would you do if your secret were revealed, big brother?"

"Sarah McGee." Gibbs said, frowning. "She sent it. Abs, get me a print out of that."

She nodded, quickly tapping in some keys and quickly a paper printed. Gibbs read it over once and quickly pocketed it.

"Why would that send McGee into hiding? Surely he would have gone to verify any issue with his sister." Ziva said, brow wrinkled in confusion. "If she was in danger, he would have come to us for help, yes?"

"Not if he felt he couldn't trust us." Tony was looking at the Director as he spoke. "I mean, it's not like his life was just getting back to normal or anything after being so rudely upheaved- oh wait."

Gibbs reached out and slapped his Senior Field Agent. He was the only one allowed to sass the Director, as he was likely the only one to get away with it. "DiNozzo!"

"Thanks, Boss." Tony said, flinching slightly.

He didn't apologize to the Director, Gibbs had long since trained him out of that behavior, but at least the Director looked mollified, which was what Gibbs had been going for.

Satisfied, Gibbs gave out orders. "Okay, Tony and Ziva-"

"Find Sarah McGee- on it, Boss." Tony snapped off the order without missing a beat.

Gibbs nodded as the two scurried back to their desks for their backpacks, satisfied that at least one part of his team was functioning correctly.

"Let Ziva drive, we need this done quickly." He ordered as they headed towards the elevators. "And bring back coffee!"

"And a Caf-Pow!" Abby ordered, jumping up and waving at Tony. "Two of them!"

Ziva grinned, slipping into the elevator, but Tony had to get his Boss's confirmation. "Get her a Caf-Pow." Gibbs conceded. "One."

"Aw, Gibbs." Abby pouted, crossing her arms.

"I could make a Mini-Pow." He threatened. Not that he would ever do that to her, if he had the choice, and Tony was already gone anyways.

But she still quickly backed off. "No, no, one's fine." She said, nodding rapidly.

"Good girl." He said. "Now, what can we do about McGee's orders for you."

"I don't see a time frame on this, Ms. Sciuto." Vance joined the conversation, waving the paper slightly. "He asks that you do as he asked, but he didn't say it had to be today. I would assume he wanted it done before we started investigating."

"Uh, well, yes sir. I guess." She said, nodding. "Before it would put him in danger."

Vance smiled. "Well, in that case, you have my permission to leave if we start investigating McGee. You may stay up here to monitor us."

Abby's eyes lit up. "That would work!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands. "The files only have to be deleted before you find them. Okay, I'll just stay here, out of your way."

"I'm going to talk to Ducky." Gibbs said gruffly. "Director…" He trailed off, unsure of what to do with the other man.

"I'll be in my office, where Sarah McGee will be brought when she arrives." Vance said firmly, before walking away.

"Works for me. Abs, send for me when they get here." He ordered before heading for autopsy.

"Hey!" She exclaimed, looking up from the computer she'd been playing around on- it was always fun to tweak with Timmy's computers, as it flustered him so- to realize she was alone in the bullpen. "Where'd everybody go?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two- Troubles Escalate

Vance had barely sat down at his desk when his phone beeped, alerting him that Pamela had a call for him. "Send it through," he told her over the phone, leaning back into his chair with a sigh. He had an Agent missing, Gibbs was ready to go off grid again if his agent was in any sort of trouble…that would mean the SecNav was on the phone, threatening funding again. Maybe it was the CIA or the FBI, calling to complain about Gibbs- he got those calls about three times a week, even when Gibbs wasn't actively destroying one of their investigations.

"Hello, Leon Vance speaking." He said, when the call beeped through.

"Hey, Leon." He shot up, eyes widening as he realized that Ms. Sciuto was on the line. He was confused, as he'd been expecting a complaint about Gibbs, which about half of his calls accounted for, and why on earth would Abby Sciuto complain about Gibbs (unless it was about the lack of two Caf-Pows, in which case the girl was fired)? Then he realized she'd used his first name.

"Ms. Sciuto," he started ominously, but she didn't even give him chance to finish.

"You know," she interrupted. "If you're nice enough to let me use your first name, you really should use mine. Abby. Please. Anyways, Leon," she went on quickly before he could recover. "I just called to tell you that Fornell is here- you know, the FBI guy. He's looking for Gibbs." Her voice continued speaking, slightly muffled, "I told you, he's not here!" There was a pause and then Abby returned to Vance. "And he's not very nice, either. I'm telling Gibbs. Of course, he is nicer than Kort, the CIA guy. He's really, really not nice. I don't like him very much and-"

"Ms. Sciuto-"

"Abby." She interrupted. "I'll have to sit down and seriously think about which one of them I like least. On the plus side, you're not on the list anymore, Leon. I took you off when you brought back Timmy and Tony and Ziva. But as for them, I-"

Rolling his eyes, Vance hung up the phone, hurrying out of his office. He reached the stairs at a near run and heard Abby's voice, "He hung up. He must be on his way," right before Tobias Fornell came into view.

"Director Vance." The bald FBI agent nodded cordially at Vance as he came into the bullpen. "Perhaps you could direct me towards Gibbs. It's important that I talk to him."

"As you can see," Vance gestured at the empty bullpen. "They're busy right now. Does this have to do with a case?"

"Actually, not directly. I don't even need Gibbs, truth be told, not if you're here." Vance was amused to see that even the FBI looked for ways to get around talking to Gibbs. Although, if the rumors were true, these two had quite the adversarial relationship, so maybe why that's why he was avoiding Gibbs.

"What do you need?" Vance asked curiously. There weren't, after all, many things that both he and Gibbs had power over. Off-the-book, he wasn't actually sure he had power over anything, or more specifically anyone, Gibbs had power over.

Fornell's finger swung towards Abby. "I need him."

Vance followed the finger just to make sure, but it was still pointing at Abby, who'd yet to move from McGee's desk. "Ms. Scuito?" He asked doubtfully.

"No!" Fornell looked slightly embarrassed, dropping his hand. "McGee. Sorry, Abs."

"As you should be." She narrowed her eyes menacingly at him. "Timmy's not here. And you had better bring a Caf-Pow next time you try to get into my lab." She threatened, wagging a finger at him.

"Agent McGee is not here at the moment." Vance said, puling Fornell's attention away before any death threats could be made.

Fornell rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I heard the party line. It's important."

The elevator dinged and all three turned to see DiNozzo and David walk out with a petite brunette.

"McGee's not with them?" Fornell asked, confused.

"McGee's there." Abby stood with a grin. "Sarah!" She hurried over to the girl, pulling her into a tight hug.

The younger girl floundered for a second, before gamely returning the hug. "Hey, Abby. Where's Tim?" She asked.

Abby ignored her question, turning to Tony, who was holding her Caf-Pow and Gibbs' coffee. "Gimme!" She ordered.

"Uh-uh." Tony easily maneuvered away from her. "Where's Gibbs?"

"He's in Autopsy." Vance said.

"Nu-uh." Abby's eyes hadn't left the Caf-Pow. "I called him right before I called you. He's-"

The elevator dinged again, revealing the man they were all searching for. "Tobias, what are you doing here?" Gibbs demanded, stepping into the overcrowded bullpen.

"I suggest we all take this up to my office." Vance was not only uncomfortable being so close to so many people, but he could see their group was beginning to attract the attention of other teams.

He was pleased to see he still had some authority, as DiNozzo and David turned, along with Ms. McGee, but Abby interrupted before anyone left. "Gibbs!" She whined. "Tony won't give me my Caf-Pow!"

"Oh." Gibbs took the drinks from his agent, taking a long drink of coffee before distributing the Caf-Pow to the caffeine-deprived woman. "Thanks, Abs." He said, kissing her cheek as she sipped her drink up.

It took several long seconds before she finished. "Of course, my Silver-haired Fox." She said, beaming up at him. All was forgiven, for now. "I'm coming with you, I don't wanna be left again. C'mon, Sarah." She grabbed the girl and headed towards the Director's office. "D'you want some Caf-Pow? Timmy likes it."

"Where's McGee?" Fornell demanded as Gibbs' team started following Abby. "You said he was here."

Gibbs gave his usual half-smile. "Actually, _a_ McGee is here. Tim's little sister, Sarah." He nodded to the girl with Abby. "Tim isn't."

"I need him." Fornell said, ignoring the girl. She was of no use to him- unless! "Is she a computer geek too?"

"Sarah?" Gibbs's grin grew. "Not quite. She's a writer." He added helpfully.

"I need Tim." Fornell said firmly. "Where is he?"

"Why do you need Agent McGee?" Vance demanded, annoyed that the conversation was being held without him. "You can't requisition my agents and certainly not without my authorization."

Fornell turned to him. "We've been investigating the CEO of a large shipping company, who we suspect has been embezzling from the government. We were close to a break through yesterday and we were supposed to get warrants today to go make the arrests, but my three top computer geeks failed to show up today. One is out sick- has the flu, looks dreadful- but the other two are the best I've got and neither one called in. I need McGee- if we don't get that evidence, that damn embezzler's gonna walk!"

Gibbs' smile faded. "Your best hackers are missing? That's funny- so is mine." He glanced at Tim's desk and then grabbed Fornell's arm. "C'mon, you'd better come with us." He said, heading towards Vance's office. "Let's go, Leon!" He added, making the Director hurry towards them.

They made it upstairs and Vance was just cringing at the thought of what Gibbs' crew might have done while left unattended in his office when they realized that no one was in Vance's office. The whole group was standing before Pamela Cook's desk. His young secretary had her arms crossed and was standing in front of his door. Abby and Sarah were off to the side, passing the Caf-Pow back and forth, while DiNozzo and David tried to stare down his secretary. As Leon knew from long experience, such a feat was damn near impossible.

"If you do not move at once, I will-"

"Ziva." Gibbs interrupted his agent, headslapping the both of them. "You do not threaten civilians." He chastised them. "Ms. Cook?"

"Hello, Agent Gibbs." The petite woman offered him a smile. "As I was just explaining to your Agents, no one goes into the Director's office when he isn't there."

Vance stepped forward, as neither DiNozzo nor David looked placated. "And here I am. Thank you, Ms. Cook. Please hold my calls."

"Of course, sir." Ignoring the eyes burning holes through her skull, Pamela calmly headed back to her desk.

"Inside, all of you." Vance opened his door, gesturing them through.

"Um, what's going on?" Sarah McGee didn't know who to look to in all of this confusion. She followed Abby, who had yet to steer her wrong and was offering pure caffeine for a poor sleep-deprived college student, who took a seat at the conference table in the office.

When everyone had sat down, Gibbs spoke up. "Sarah, you sent your brother an email last night."

"I know." Sarah suddenly realized why Tim wasn't here. "And I'm so sorry! I wasn't thinking- I knew Tim would get a kick out of it, but of course jokes shouldn't be sent to his work email. I didn't mean to do it- he's told me not to before. You didn't fire him, did you?" She turned to glare at the Director. "Jeez, Tim has the worst luck with you Directors!"

Abby, who couldn't exactly disagree with Sarah's statement, took over the explanation. "Sarah, your brother got that email about ten minutes before he called me. He told me he had to disappear for awhile and didn't show up for work. He left me orders to wipe his computers- he thinks he's in danger."

"That's quite a short period of time." Tony went on. "Quite a coincidence that he got an email and disappeared."

"And we as investigators have long since known: there is no such thing as a coincidence." Ziva finished up. "You must know why your brother was so worried by your email."

"What did this email say?" Fornell hated coming to NCIS because, as usual, he had no idea what the hell they were talking about.

Without a word, Gibbs searched his pockets for the printout Abby had given him earlier. Ducky hadn't been able to make much sense of it, other than to tell him the complete story behind Sir Doyle's adventure. He handed it over for Fornell to read.

"What I don't understand," Vance took his turn as the FBI agent read over the email, "are McGee's orders. He didn't want Ms. Sciuto to tell Ms. McGee anything. Why would he do that if his sister sent the email?"

"Tim loves Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." Sarah took a chance and spoke up. "I'm sure he's heard this story before- he might even have told it to me. We were all talking about it last night and I had to laugh. I told them all, my brother wouldn't flee. Tim doesn't have secrets."

Ziva smiled, remembering Gibbs' words from so long ago. "McGee does not lie."

"But," Tony's mind could be lightning fast at times and he was better than most at bending words. "That doesn't mean he doesn't have secrets. He kept his book a secret. Maybe you found out what your brother would do if his secret were found out- if he thought his secret was found out. He'd run too."

"This is bigger than him though." Fornell looked up, frowning. "Two of our best hackers are gone too. As I think about it, Byers liked Sherlock Holmes a lot- quoted it all the time. He probably knew about the quote from Doyle. But I know Munez wouldn't have known it. She is literally on her computer all the time."

Abby perked up, something Tim had said long ago clicking in her mind. "Lexy Munez? I mean, Alexandria Munez?" She asked, eyes wide.

"How did you know that?" He turned suspicious eyes on her.

Abby was too happy to notice however. "Gibbs! Timmy went to school with Lexy Munez. She was his partner in most of their classes." She frowned, huffing. "He talked about her all the time when he first got here. Lexy this and Lexy that and Lexy could do that in her sleep."

"Aw, you know Tim likes you best." Tony couldn't resist throwing his arm around her and hugging her tight. "He always has."

"What about Byers?" Ziva asked, eyes focused on Fornell. "Did he attend MIT as well?"

Fornell shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. We keep our computer geeks out of harm's way. We don't give them guns and send them out to get shot at. But probably- we only take the best, after all." He said smugly.

"Oh yeah?" Gibbs smirked at him. "Then why do we have McGee?"

That earned him a glare, which only increased his smirk.

"Alright." Tony spoke up again. "We have three computer geniuses who probably went to geek-school together and two Doyle buffs. That quote must mean something to them."

"The quote came first." Ziva followed her partner's thinking easily after so many years. "Maybe Tim did not read the rest of the email? He saw the quote and panicked."

"The three of them must have gotten up to something- guilty conscience and all that." Tony said. "It most likely has to do with computers, as he wanted his wiped. But why didn't he come to us for help?"

The room fell silent, having no answer for that.

"Maybe, it was because of the others." Ziva finally offered. "We know the extent he will go to for family and he now knows he is able to trust us in those matters, but, with friends, he would be flying alone, yes?"

"Flying solo." Tony corrected automatically. "I guess so. Maybe it's just cuz they're Feebies." He teased, grinning at Fornell. "He didn't think we'd help their kind. And he's right- if it was just them in trouble, we'd let them rot."

"So now, we just have to find them." Gibbs frowned, unable to even guess where his geek might have disappeared to.

"Um…guys." Sarah McGee pulled out her cell phone, looking around the room in confusion. "Tim's calling me."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three- All is Resolved?

"Well, answer it!" Gibbs snapped, when the girl just stared at the phone in her hand with a look of horror on her face.

"I can't!" She half-wailed. "Tim told me not to come back here- I'm not allowed to talk to you guys. He said he'd kill me if I did."

Ziva grinned. "I highly doubt that he will kill you."

The phone's musical ring stopped. There was barely a second of silence before it started again.

"Answer that damn phone!" Gibbs ordered. "Put it on speaker and don't tell him where you are!"

Her brother had never managed to disobey that tone and she proved no stronger. She tapped the required buttons and lay the phone on the table. "Hey, Tim," she said tentatively.

"Sarah!" The whole team sighed in relief as Tim's voice came through the phone. At the very least, he was alive. He didn't sound like he was harmed in any way, though he did sound frustrated. "Did you send me an email last night?" He demanded.

Sarah grinned guiltily. "Well, duh." She scolded him. "Exactly how many people call you 'big brother', big brother?" She asked.

"I didn't exactly read the whole email." Tim's voice sounded sheepish through the phone. "What the hell is with the Klingon- I thought you were DiNozzo! You're lucky I didn't call him and yell at him. That's all I would have needed- to give him more ammunition. Do you want me to be called McKlingon? Or McCrazy or something stupid like that?"

Sarah bit back a smile, watching as Tommy's- Tony's!- eyes lit up with glee. "Um, no?" She said.

"You're damn right no!" Tim snapped back to her. "Where did you learn Klingon- and why the hell did you send that? Did someone tell you to? Are you in danger?"

"No!" She exclaimed, even though surrounded by so many agents she couldn't be sure of that. "We were all joking around and someone told that myth about Doyle. I thought you'd get a kick out of it. And some guy was there- he knew Klingon. He told me that and I thought it'd be funny to send it to you in a language you spoke. Are you in danger, Tim?"

"No." Tim's voice rang back almost too quickly, though he sounded extremely confident in his words. "I'm fine. Sarah, who was this guy?"

His voice sounded suspicious to Gibbs, but apparently Sarah couldn't hear the worry through the 'big-brother' tone that Tim often took when talking with her about guys. "None of your business, Tim." She said, rolling her eyes.

Gibbs turned to Tony, however, and received a nod. Tony had heard it too. Gibbs gestured to Abby and Tony sent her his way. "Abs," Gibbs whispered over Sarah arguing with her brother. "Go trace McGee's cell."

Abby nodded, rising from her position beside him and quickly heading for her lab, with a quick wave at Pamela as she left.

"Sarah, I don't care if you slept with the guy!" Gibbs turned back to the McGee siblings' conversation only to wince and wish he hadn't. "I don't care. I just need his name. Or better yet- let me guess. Was it Jonny Easton?"

Sarah's eyes grew wide and Gibbs knew that Tim had hit the name dead on. "How did you know that- are you following me?" She demanded.

"Do you have that bastard's number?" Tim ignored her question and asked his own.

At least Sarah knew him well enough not to hound him with a question he didn't want to answer. "No. I gave him mine. He said he'd call me."

"Yeah, don't count on that." The collective around the table winced at that as Sarah's eyes filled with tears. Even McGee seemed to realize what he said, as his voice came back guiltily, "Oh, god, Sar- I didn't mean it like that. You're a-a, um, great girl. I'm sure. But Easton is a piece of… He used to do this all the time back at MIT. Use girls and then toss them aside. I'm sure he came up with the clever idea of sending that quote to me too- he would know what that means. Don't worry, I'll find him and take care of this."

"What is 'this'?" Sarah asked, receiving an approving nod from Gibbs.

"Don't you worry about it, it's nothing that concerns you. This is my fault- everyone at MIT knew I had a little sister. It wouldn't be hard to work out how old you were." Tim said tired. "He always was a sore loser about things. He must be cackling with glee right now, thinking he's pulled one over on us."

"'Us'?" Sarah grinned. "Who are you with, Tim? Shouldn't you be at work?"

There was a moment of silence and her grin fell. Apparently this was not a joke. "I've told you before, Sar." Tim's voice was quite solemn as he finally spoke. "Some things are even more important than NCIS. You're one of them. This is another one of those things. I took some time off. I'll take care of this and be back before you know it."

"I thought you said you'd go to Gibbs if you were in trouble again?" Sarah said scoldingly.

Tim laughed. "This isn't exactly something Gibbs can help with. Sarah, look, don't talk to Easton again. He's not a good guy- and he's way too old for you. He's got to be at least two years older than me."

"I won't." She said, sighing. "He wasn't that good a kisser anyway."

"Thanks." Gibbs could practically see McGee rolling his eyes. "I've always wondered. I'm so glad I know now." Gibbs had to glare at Tony, promising a slap with his stare, to keep him quiet.

"So, uh, you still haven't' told me who you're with, big brother." Sarah said, giggling at his words. "Is there someone I get to bash and tell you never to see again."

"No, I would never subject her to the likes of you," Tim's voice turned teasing again. "Maybe Danny, though. Just for fun."

"Hey!" They all leaned closer, hearing a faint voice on Tim's side of the phone. Another male.

Gibbs turned to Fornell, receiving a nod. "Daniel Byers." He confirmed in a whisper.

Abby returned, a Post-it in hand, which she handed to Gibbs. He read the address, noting with satisfaction it was only forty minutes or so away. He could make it there in twenty minutes. Ziva could make it there in fifteen minutes. Whatever he was up to, their geek hadn't abandoned them completely.

He tapped the table, getting Sarah's attention and made a 'wrap it up' motion. "Hey, Tim," Sarah couldn't have been more happy to get away from this awkward conversation. "I've gotta get going. You stay safe," she added, her usual sign off now that she actually knew how dangerous his job could be.

"Sure, Sarah," he was as unappreciative as ever regarding her new appreciation for him. "And no more emails in languages you don't speak! Be a good girl!" He gave her his usual 'good bye', quickly ending the call before she could yell at him.

She put her phone back in her pocket, blushing at his words. He'd spoken those same words to her almost every time he'd ever left her since the day she started kindergarten. Obviously, she'd never moved past the age of five to him. The jerk- he deserved all the teasing Tony was going to give him over this one.

"Gibbs." As they all fell silent, Abby spoke up. "While I was tracking him, Tim came onto the NCIS main frame. He ran a search for-"

"Jon Easton." Gibbs finished for her.

She pouted, hating as always that she hadn't gotten the news to him first. "And, I looked up the location that Tim's at- it's Daniel Byer's house."

"Yeah, okay." Gibbs nodded. "Tony-"

"No, Gibbs!" Abby interrupted him, putting her hand on  
>his shoulder. "I don't know who this Easton is, but he lives right down the street from where Byers lives. Tim could be in danger!"<p>

"Tony, Ziva, take the car." Gibbs snapped. "Abby, you take Sarah down your lab and lock it down- you aren't allowed out until I come get you. I don't know if Easton would go after Sarah, but he targeted Tim through her once already- we can't risk that a second time. Tobias, you're with me."

Without so much as a by-your-leave, they all took off, leaving Vance alone in his office.

***

Thanks to traffic, it actually took both Ziva and Gibbs  
>almost twenty-five minutes to arrive at their destination. They came to a sleepy little street that was a dead end on end. The houses on the street were all framed by the woods behind them. It looked nice enough.<p>

"I could have gotten us there faster." Tobias grumbled as they climbed out.

"Shh!" Gibbs drew his gun almost immediately. "Do you  
>smell that?"<p>

There was a fire somewhere, burning.

"There are people around back." Ziva reported as she and  
>Tony walked over. "I can hear them. More than a few."<p>

"Alright, let's go." Gibbs ignored the front door, heading around to the gate he could see between their house and the next. "Stay sharp."

They fanned out as they got to the closed gate. Closer to the house, they could hear several voice, raised in happy celebration. The smell of gasoline was prominent too.

"Tony," Gibbs gestured to the gate.

Tony nodded, bracing himself and kicking it in with one leg. The four agents entered, guns raised, flanking their partners. "NCIS, freeze!" Gibbs called out, while Fornell did the same.

There were actually ten people in the backyard, all of whom did, in fact, freeze, something criminals rarely did. Had there not been so many potential targets, Gibbs might have focused more on the large bonfire in the middle of the yard.

"Hey, take it easy, guys!" Gibbs only calmed when his agent appeared, walking out from behind the fire. He was holding a gasoline can, which he set down before approaching Gibbs. He held his hands up slightly, but  
>gave them a genial grin. "Damn. You caught me." He said. "I did good- I had my phone off all day. Sarah was at NCIS, wasn't she?"<p>

Gibbs, having called Abby to get a new fix on Tim's phone- fearful McGee might have gone after Easton, already knew that the agent's phone was off and had suspected the phone had been off most of the day.

He wouldn't have given Sarah up, but Tony had to break  
>in, "Uh, yeah, we did, McKlingon." He looked ecstatic he'd gotten to use a McNickname that Tim himself had come up with, so Tim just rolled his eyes.<p>

"Well, look, Boss, I'm sorry I didn't call in, but I'm not in any danger. Really." Tim assured Gibbs.

Gibbs gestured for the others to put away their guns. "What about Easton, Tim?" He asked.

Tim laughed. "Wow, I'm really not good at hiding things, hm?" He looked sour momentarily at the thought. "Jonny's no problem, we took care of him. Right, guys?" He asked, turning back to the others.

Now that the guns were gone, the people around the fire had started moving again, several coming closer. Gibbs could see, to his amusement, that they all had a laptop somewhere nearby.

"This is your team, Tim?" A woman with wildly curly brown hair came up next to Tim, looking the others over curiously.

"Well, you know Agent Fornell." Tim blushed as the woman's arm wrapped around him. "Boss, this is Lexy, an old friend of mine. Lexy, this is Gibbs."

Gibbs nodded, but was cut off by Tony before he could speak up, "Hello, beautiful!"

Gibbs smirked, DiNozzo would never change, and looked around. Most of the people around the backyard were staring at them. Only one man, with spiked red hair, wasn't looking at them. Instead, he was staring at the bonfire, looking devastated.

"McGee?" Gibbs nodded towards the man, pulling DiNozzo away from the uncomfortable looking woman.

"That's Easton, Agent Gibbs." A black man who even taller than Tim and had curly black hair and chocolate brown eyes came up to stand next to Tim as well, though he didn't slip an arm around his waist and instead kept a manly distance. "As you can see, he's no danger to anyone."

"We put an end to that!" Lexy smirked. "Imagine- using Tim's little sister like that."

"It was a nice reunion though." Another woman, this one a petite blond with a ponytail and bright blue eyes bounced up next to Lexy. "I haven't been able to get away lately."

"Yeah." Tim agreed. "Uh, Boss, this is Danny- we all crashed his house as it was the biggest. And this is Jane." He pointed to the blonde.

Danny waved weakly at Fornell. "Hello, sir." He smiled. "Sorry about everything- we got all the evidence you needed and more. That Jennings isn't just embezzling- he's laundering that money through a number of casinos he has a stake in. This collective can do anything when they put their minds to it," he added, gesturing around the group.

As happy as Fornell was to get the information, he couldn't help but be a little horrified. "You let all these people in on a case!" He exclaimed. "Jennings' lawyers will tear this evidence up!"

"Relax, Agent Fornell." Tim reassured him when Danny and Lexy both quailed under Fornell's glare. "They didn't tell us about the case. We all just threw around some ideas. Lexy and Danny did all the work themselves."

"In that case, get over here." Fornell grabbed his geeks and took them aside. He needed this information quickly to get his warrant.

"McGee, what is going on?" Ziva asked. "What danger were you in?"

Jane grinned, though she sidled a little closer to Tim when Ziva's eyes turned towards her. "We weren't in any danger, ma'am." She said, looking to Tim before continuing. "We all took a class together at MIT- a database class. We all got really close and well…" She trailed off grinning. "Jonny just takes things too seriously sometimes. We took care of it. Really."

"McGee." Gibbs didn't like half-answers.

"Boss, no offense, but it's nothing you'd understand." Tim wasn't about to spill his friends' secrets. "We were all geeks, none of us really had many friends. So, we shared some…computing techniques with each other. You know, secrets shared make a friendship stronger or something. We all agreed that that password- All is discovered, flee at once- written in Klingon would be our keyword if those secrets got out. Easton thought he could blackmail us with it."

"So, we found him and burned the evidence." Jane concluded, grinning. "All he could do was watch and weep. Loser." She sniffed haughtily and left to go rejoin the others.

They were all sitting around in a lazy circle, some on the grass and some in chairs, laughing and teasing one another, but all had a laptop in their laps or nearby. Whatever they had done to Easton, he looked both terrified and completely beaten, though there wasn't a mark on him.

Ziva approved. "Well done, Tim." She said,  
>smiling. "Always protect your six."<p>

"We should have done it years ago." Tim looked a little embarrassed. "But he got kicked out of MIT- for using some of our hacking tricks and left with the secrets we'd written."

"Wow." Tony couldn't believe he was in the presence of so many geeks. "But what did you do?"

Tim just grinned. "Hey, think of it this way, Tony. 'I'm a nerd and I'm here tonight to stand up for the rights of other nerds'."

Tony gasped, his face lighting up with glee. "Revenge of the Nerds, 1984. Great movie."

Gibbs rolled his eyes, reaching out and slapping them both. He could see by the stubborn look on Tim's face they weren't really going to get any more answers and the situation looked to be contained. Trying to pry answers from Tim was a useless endeavor when he got stubborn, even for him, and he definitely wanted to get out of there if Tim was pulling out movie quotes. Tim encouraging Tony always led to disaster. "I guess you're on a vacation day, McGee." He said, slapping the youngest man again. "Some heads up would be nice next time. You better not be late tomorrow."

He gestured to the others, turning to leave. Ziva willingly left, as did Fornell, who was busy talking on his phone, but Tony stayed back, wanting a few more seconds to tease his Probie.

Before he could say a word, Lexy returned, with several of the others right behind her. "'We have news for the beautiful people. There's a lot more of us than there are of you'." She said, grinning menacingly at Tony.

Tony gulped, realizing the truth of her words. "Uh, see you tomorrow then, Probie." He said, quickly turning and heading for the gate. Only when he closed it safely behind him did he slow down, but then he could hear them all burst into laughter behind him. Damn nerds.  
>-<p>

Please feel free to leave comments, let me know if you liked it!


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